FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT TANZANIA - PAGE 2

Yoko Ono and the surviving Beatles say an Owings Mills stamp distributor shouldn't be selling Fab Four stamps issued by Third World nations."This is bootleg merchandise which is hiding behind the fact that small, Third World countries put a seal of approval on them," said their lawyer, Paul Licalsi.They charge in a federal lawsuit that the International Collectors Society violated licensing laws by selling stamps bearing Beatles likenesses from such nations as Chad, Madagascar, St. Vincent and Tanzania.

A small service club in Westminster is helping to eradicate an illness that is devastating remote villages in the United Republic of Tanzania. Bonds Meadow Rotary Club, which has 70 members, has dedicated its resources to fighting river blindness in the East African country of 50 million for nearly three years, making the battle against what many call a debilitating scourge its signature project. In a meeting yesterday in Westminster, the group celebrated with Tanzanian officials - who are in Washington this week for an international conference on river blindness - a $297,000 grant from Rotary International.

Kenneth Kaunda has been Zambia's president since soon after he led it to independence in 1964. Julius Nyerere was chief minister of Tanganyika after the election of 1960, president since 1962 and president of Tanzania (incorporating Zanzibar) since 1964. They are founding fathers still ruling, the last of the giants who brought English-speaking Black Africa to independence. Though each has recognized his rule is obsolete, they have reacted in different ways.Both made their countries one-party states early on. They contended that British-style parliamentary democracy did not transplant to Africa, that tribalism cutting across national boundaries made it unworkable.

A South Baltimore church near the new Oriole Park at Camden Yards wants baseball fans to see the light as well as the games.Saints Stephen and James' Evangelical Lutheran Church, Hanover and Hamburg streets, a few blocks from Oriole Park, is placing "baseball-inspired" messages on its outdoor signs before Orioles home games.A recent message: "Easter Doubleheader. Sermon: 'The Alleluia vs. The Eclipse.' Sinners Admitted Free."Future messages will tell fans that "God never makes errors" and that "No one should balk at God's gift of salvation."

Members of the Bonds Meadow Rotary club in Westminster are traveling to Tanzania today to help world health organizations battle river blindness, a debilitating disease that has affected hundreds of thousands of people and devastated farming communities in central Africa. Vince Campanella, chairman of Carroll's Economic Development Commission, and Paul Derstine, director of Interchurch Medical Assistance in New Windsor, will spend 10 days in remote villages of Tanzania. They will meet with Tanzanian officials and members of other Rotary clubs.

ZANZIBAR, Tanzania -- Islamist forces in Somalia expanded their offensive yesterday, witnesses said, and began attacking the seat of the transitional government from a new direction. According to residents in the Bakal area north of Baidoa, the inland city where the transitional government is based, Islamist forces rushed in with several dozen pickup trucks bristling with heavy guns. Before this, their attacks had been limited to the south and the east of Baidoa, where they met stiff resistance and suffered many casualties.

Dr. David Francis Clyde, a world-renowned malaria expert whose experiences and research in Tanzania led to a greater understanding of the disease, died of pancreatic cancer Tuesday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. He was 77. Born in Meruit, India, the son of a physician, he was sent to England at age 7 to study. He was evacuated from England at the start of World War II and sent to Kansas City, Kan., where he lived with relatives and graduated from high school in 1942. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Kansas in 1946 and earned his medical degree from McGill University in 1949.

William Hickey,69, a longtime acting teacher whose portrayal of a dying Mafia don in "Prizzi's Honor" brought him an Oscar nomination, died Sunday in New York of complications from emphysema and bronchitis.William Leonhart,78, a former U.S. ambassador to Tanzania and Yugoslavia, died Thursday in Washington. President John F. Kennedy named Mr. Leonhart the first U.S. ambassador to Tanzania when the country became independent in 1962. He was ambassador to Yugoslavia from 1969 to 1972.Erie J. Sauder,92, who founded one of the nation's largest ready-to-assemble furniture companies, died Sunday in Archbold, Ohio.

Among hundreds of snapshots from an adventure-filled summer in Africa, the Reberts' favorite has all five family members standing on the equator."We were right in the middle of the world," said Heather Rebert, 8, pointing to the "equator" sign.The pose was one brief moment in two months dedicated to helping needy residents of Kenya and Tanzania. The family returned home to Westminster nearly empty-handed but full of enthusiasm for the work it had done and the work that missionary friends are continuing.